- Integrated tube amp promises a warmer, more inviting sound
- Hybrid ANC, LDAC and USB-C for higher-res audio
- $799 (about £652 / AU$1,303)
We’ve seen small vacuum tubes in headphone amps with the promise of a warmer, more involving audio experience, but the new Écoute vacuum tube headphones have decided to cut out the middleman and put a whole hi-fi on your head. The headphones include a Korg Nutube P61 right in the earcups for an authentic tube sound with class A/B amplification.
We first saw these headphones on Kickstarter, where the project exceeded its funding target by a huge margin. And now they’re available to buy through regular routes, albeit for a lot more than the initial backers paid: the price for early birds was $379 to $399, but the price now is $799 (about £652 / AU$1,303).
Écoute vacuum tube headphones: key features
The idea of putting a tube in a pair of headphones does tend to bring mental images of massive lightbulb-sized tubes to mind, but Korg’s tube is positively microscopic compared to the ones you’ll find in the likes of McIntosh’s tube amps. Which is just as well, because a traditional tube is far too fragile to survive in the outside world, and it would also make the headphones much heavier. These ones are a relatively lightweight 424g, thought that’s much weightier than the 250g of the Sony WH-1000XM5.
In addition to the tube and amp, there’s hybrid ANC with transparency mode, Siri and Google Assistant voice control and both analog and digital input: the latter, over USB-C, supports 32-bit/384kHz audio, which is way higher than even most audiophile headphones dare to go.
The claimed frequency response is 20Hz to 20kHz, the drivers are 40mm in size, and there’s Bluetooth 5.3 with LDAC. Battery life is a claimed 20 hours at full volume.
I haven’t heard these headphones so I can’t say whether the tube delivers on its promises; at this price I’d want to wait until the reviews are in before deciding whether to go for these or our current premium pick of the best wireless headphones for sound, the Dali iO8. But those are tubeless…
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